Announcing Scala.js 1.0.0-M2

This development release is mostly intended for testing purposes, and as a synchronization point with library authors so that they can start upgrading in preparation for the final release.

As the change in “major” version number witnesses, this release is not binary compatible with 0.6.x, nor with 1.0.0-M1.
Libraries need to be recompiled and republished using this milestone to be compatible.

Moreover, this release is not entirely source compatible with 0.6.x either.
We expect, however, that further milestones for 1.0.0 will stay backward source compatible with this milestone.

Attention: We would like to bring your attention to the fact that Scala.js 1.0.0-M2 is the last release that will support:

sbt 0.13

building on JDK 6 and JDK 7

Scala 2.10

Starting with Scala.js 1.0.0-M3, the support for those will be dropped, as those technologies are obsolete and going forward, would put an undue maintenance burden on our shoulders.

Preparations before upgrading from 0.6.x

Before upgrading to 1.0.0-M2, we strongly recommend that you upgrade to Scala.js 0.6.20 or later, and address all deprecation warnings.
Since Scala.js 1.0.0-M2 removes support for all the deprecated features in 0.6.x, it is easier to see the deprecation messages guiding you to the proper replacements.

Additionally to the explicitly deprecated things, make sure to use scalaJSLinkerConfig instead of the following sbt settings:

scalaJSSemantics

scalaJSModuleKind

scalaJSOutputMode

emitSourceMaps

relativeSourceMaps

scalaJSOutputWrapper

scalaJSOptimizerOptions

Upgrade to 1.0.0-M2 from 0.6.20 or later

As a first approximation, all you need to do is to update the version number in project/plugins.sbt:

addSbtPlugin("org.scala-js"%"sbt-scalajs"%"1.0.0-M2")

In addition, if you use some of the components that have been moved to separate repositories, you will need to add some more dependencies in project/plugins.sbt:

Breaking changes

Access to the global scope instead of the global object

This is the only major breaking change at the language level.
In Scala.js 1.x, js.Dynamic.global and @JSGlobalScope objects refer to the global scope of JavaScript, rather than the global object.
Concretely, this has three consequences, which we outline below.
Further information can be found in the documentation about the global scope in Scala.js.

Members can only be accessed with a statically known name which is a valid JavaScript identifier

For example, the following is valid:

println(js.Dynamic.global.Math)

but the following variant, where the name Math is only known at run-time, is not valid anymore:

valmathName="Math"println(js.Dynamic.global.selectDynamic(mathName))

The latter will cause a compile error.
This is because it is not possible to perform dynamic lookups in the global scope.
Similarly, accessing a member whose name is statically known but not a valid JavaScript identifier is also prohibited:

println(js.Dynamic.global.`not-a-valid-JS-identifier`)

Global scope objects cannot be stored in a separate val

For example, the following is invalid and will cause a compile error:

valg=js.Dynamic.global

as well as:

deffoo(x:Any):Unit=println(x)foo(js.Dynamic.global)

This follows from the previous rule.
If the above two snippets were allowed, we could not check that we only access members with statically known names.

The first snippet can be advantageously replaced by a renaming import:

importjs.Dynamic.{global=>g}

Accessing a member that is not declared causes a ReferenceError to be thrown

This is a run-time behavior change, and in our experience the larger source of breakages in actual code.

Previously, reading a non-existent member of the global object, such as

println(js.Dynamic.global.globalVarThatDoesNotExist)

would evaluate to undefined.
In Scala.js 1.x, this throws a ReferenceError.
Similarly, writing to a non-existent member, such as

js.Dynamic.global.globalVarThatDoesNotExist=42

would previously create said global variable.
In Scala.js 1.x, it also throws a ReferenceError.

A typical use case of the previous behavior was to test whether a global variable was defined or not, e.g.,

if(js.isUndefined(js.Dynamic.global.Promise)){// Promises are not supported
}else{// Promises are supported
}

This idiom is broken in Scala.js 1.x, and needs to be replaced by an explicit use of js.typeOf:

if(js.typeOf(js.Dynamic.global.Promise)!="undefined")

The js.typeOf “method” is magical when its argument is member of a global scope object.

js.UndefOr[A] is now an alias for A | Unit

Instead of defining js.UndefOr[+A] as its own type, it is now a simple type alias for A | Unit:

typeUndefOr[+A]=A|Unit

The Option-like API is of course preserved.

We do not expect this to cause any significant issue, but it may impact type inference in subtle ways that can cause compile errors for previously valid code.
You may have to adjust some uses of js.UndefOr due to these changes, especially if using Scala 2.10.

testHtml replaces both testHtmlFastOpt and testHtmlFullOpt

The separation of testHtmlFastOpt and testHtmlFullOpt, which were independent of the value of scalaJSStage, caused significant unfixable issues in 0.6.x.
In Scala.js 1.x, both are replaced by a single task, testHtml.
It is equivalent to the old testHtmlFastOpt if the value of scalaJSStage is FastOptStage (the default), and to testHtmlFullOpt if it is FullOptStage.
This makes it more consistent with other tasks such as run and test.

scalajs-javalib-ex was removed

The artifact scalajs-javalib-ex is removed in 1.x.
It only contained a partial implementation of java.util.ZipInputStream.
If you were using it, we recommend that you integrate a copy of its source code from Scala.js 0.6.x into your project.

js.use(x).as[T] was removed

The use cases for js.use(x).as[T] have been dramatically reduced by non-native JS classes (previously known as Scala.js-defined JS classes).
This API seems virtually unused on the visible Web.
Moreover, it was the only macro in the Scala.js standard library.

We have therefore removed it from the standard library, and it is not provided anymore.
On demand, we can republish it as a separate library, if you need it.

Scala 2.12.0 is not supported anymore

A severe regression in Scala 2.12.0 upstream, affecting js.UndefOr, forced us to drop support for Scala 2.12.0.
Scala 2.12.1+ is supported.

Enhancements

There are very few enhancements in Scala.js 1.0.0-M2.
Scala.js 1.0.0 is focused on simplifying Scala.js, not on adding new features.
Nevertheless, here are a few enhancements.

Scala.js can access require and other magical “global” variables of special JS environments

The changes from global object to global scope mean that magical “global” variables provided by some JavaScript environments, such as require in Node.js, are now visible to Scala.js.
For example, it is possible to dynamically call require as follows in Scala.js 1.x:

Nested non-native JS classes expose sane constructors to JavaScript

It is now possible to declare non-native JS classes inside outer classes or inside defs, and use their js.constructorOf in a meaningful way.
For example, one can define a method that creates a new JavaScript class every time it is invoked:

Cross-building for Scala.js 0.6.x and 1.x

If you want to cross-compile your libraries for Scala.js 0.6.x and 1.x (which you definitely should), here are a couple tips.

Dynamically load a custom version of Scala.js

Since the version of Scala.js is not decided by an sbt setting in build.sbt, but by the version of the sbt plugin in project/plugins.sbt, standard cross-building setups based on ++ cannot be applied.
We recommend that you load the version of Scala.js from an environment variable.
For example, you can do this in your project/plugins.sbt file:

Extra dependencies for JS environments

You can further build on the above val scalaJSVersion to dynamically add dependencies on scalajs-env-phantomjs and/or scalajs-env-jsdom-nodejs if you use them:

// For Node.js with jsdom
libraryDependencies++={if(scalaJSVersion.startsWith("0.6."))NilelseSeq("org.scala-js"%%"scalajs-env-jsdom-nodejs"%"1.0.0-M1")}// For PhantomJS
{if(scalaJSVersion.startsWith("0.6."))NilelseSeq(addSbtPlugin("org.scala-js"%"sbt-scalajs-env-phantomjs"%"1.0.0-M1"))}

In both cases, you can then use the source-compatible API in build.sbt to select your JS environment of choice.

sbt-scalajs-crossproject and Scala.js 0.6.x

If you have a crossProject in your build, you need the sbt-scalajs-crossproject sbt plugin in Scala.js 1.x.
You can also use that sbt plugin in Scala.js 0.6.x, but out-of-the-box there is a small conflict.
You can resolve this conflict using the shadowing import described in sbt-crossproject’s readme, adding the following line in your build.sbt: